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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23935207">Dwindling Sparks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningLio/pseuds/BurningLio'>BurningLio</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Colony [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Promare (2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Burning Rescue is Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Protective Aina, Rape Aftermath</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:49:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,866</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23935207</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningLio/pseuds/BurningLio</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Aina will always be there to help Galo pick up the pieces, again and again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aina Ardebit &amp; Galo Thymos, Aina Ardebit &amp; Heris Ardebit, Kray Foresight/Lio Fotia (mentioned), Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Colony [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1659124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>91</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dwindling Sparks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aina is waiting for Galo when he finally emerges from the gates to Colonial Oversight, and intercepts him as he heads straight for their shared hab unit. She would have loitered in front of the gates to Colonial Oversight all day if she could, but she knows it would draw too much attention to herself, and she can’t afford to skip out on her work crew assignment without a damn good reason. She’s got Galo’s location pinpointed on her own wrist unit, though, and when it notifies her he’s back outside she parks her mech and slips quietly away from the construction site. Remi and Lucia will cover for her.</p><p>Physically he’s unhurt, but otherwise it’s about as bad as she could have feared. Galo’s face is so stony he’s nearly expressionless, and he doesn’t acknowledge Aina as she falls into step beside him. She leans in, staring at him, and when that doesn’t do anything she snaps her fingers in front of his face.</p><p>“Hey. <i>Hey.</i> Galo. Talk to me. What happened in there? What did he say?”</p><p>“Nothing important,” Galo snaps. </p><p>“Did… did you see Lio?”</p><p><i>Something</i> flickers across Galo’s face for a moment, and he clenches his jaw. “Yes.”</p><p>It’s not like him at all. Even now, even as depressed as he’s been since migration, Aina can usually get him to talk to her. It only increases her suspicions that he’s about to do something stupid.</p><p>“Please just tell me what happened?” Aina pleads, continuing to try and fail to meet his eyes. “I know it must’ve been bad, but I can’t help if you won’t <i>tell me.</i>”</p><p>He doesn’t answer, though at least he doesn’t snap at her or try to make her go away, which is something. They reach the hab and Galo takes a sharp turn into Lucia’s room rather than his and Aina’s, and Aina’s stomach drops. Not a good sign.</p><p>“Lucia’s gonna be pissed if you mess with her stuff,” Aina warns.</p><p>“It doesn’t matter.” He’s rummaging through a pile near the foot of Lucia’s bunk, a collection of small prototypes for tools and weapons that she’s planning to enhance when she gets better materials. “She made this stuff so we could fight back, makes no difference when.”</p><p>“Yes, it does!” Aina can hear the panic rising in her voice and tries to push it down, knowing it won’t help. “For once in your life, Galo, think about what you’re doing! I don’t care what equipment you have on you, you can’t just go storm Oversight by yourself, you’re going to get yourself killed! That’s not going to help Lio!”</p><p>Galo rises and rounds on her, eyes blazing. “And what the <i>fuck</i> do you know about what will help Lio?” he snarls, suddenly vicious. “I’m not gonna spend another <i>second</i> sitting around out here while he’s—”</p><p>“We’re a rescue <i>team.</i> Remember?” Aina reaches out to grasp his shoulders, holding onto him tightly, and she glares into his eyes. “I don’t care how angry you are, I’m not going to let you do this alone.”</p><p>“Then either join me or <i>get out of my way.</i>”</p><p>“<i>No.</i>” She can feel him shaking under her hands, and her grip tightens. “I’ve already lost my sister, my whole damn <i>planet,</i> and I’m <i>not</i> losing you too. Don’t you dare throw your life away.”</p><p>There’s a moment of silence, Galo looming over her and still as stone, and for a moment Aina thinks he’s actually going to try and fight her. Then, abruptly, his face crumples and he starts to sob. Alarmed, Aina goes down with him as he falls to his knees, wrapping her arms around him tightly, and Galo buries his face in her shoulder and weeps.</p><p>---</p><p>It takes some time to get the story out of him. Lucia and Varys’s room is full of clutter and it’s not a particularly comfortable place to sit on the floor, but Galo’s in too much distress to move right away, clinging to Aina with great heaving sobs as she rubs his back and strokes his hair and waits for him to ride it out. It’s far from the first time one of them has wept into the other’s shoulder. When Galo finally lets go of her and pulls back, wiping his face, the cold anger has entirely drained out of him. He just looks <i>lost.</i></p><p>“Talk to me, Galo,” Aina says again, gently, almost pleading.</p><p>“…Lio was there. Kray wanted to… to show him off.”</p><p>Aina’s brow furrows but she says nothing, unsure if further prompting will help or just make it harder. After a minute Galo speaks up again, staring down at the floor.</p><p>“It’s… it’s worse than we thought, Aina. I thought I knew what to expect, after hearing he tried to kill himself, but…” Galo shakes his head, swallowing hard. “Seeing him like that - Kray had him on a <i>leash</i> when I walked in. He wasn’t fighting it, he wasn’t even trying, and I knew he wouldn’t be, but…” He takes a deep, shaky breath. “I don’t think I got through to him at all. I think he recognized me, but it wasn’t enough. You should have seen the way he responded to Kray, obeyed every order, even when he…” Galo breaks off sharply, shuddering. He’s silent a moment, breathing hard through his nose.</p><p>“Galo?” Aina says in a low voice, worried.</p><p>“Kray made him suck me off,” Galo says flatly, the words so blunt that it makes Aina flinch. “I didn’t want- I tried not to let him - but he was gonna get punished if he didn’t do it, so I…”</p><p>“Oh my god,” Aina whispers, horrified.</p><p>“He’s not even trying to hide it, you know?” Galo’s voice rises slightly, only a faint echo of the fury that had animated him before. “Doesn’t even try to pretend like Lio’s anything but a <i>toy.</i> He thinks he’s invincible. And I guess he’s right. He… Lio… when he told him to… he’s made him do this <i>before.</i> I don’t want to think about how many times. How many people up there were okay with just…” His voice shakes, just slightly. “And he acts like he <i>cares,</i> is the worst thing. Just sat there petting him like some kind of animal, looking me in the eye and telling me I needed to think about <i>what’s best for Lio.</i>” Galo spits the words out, full of venom. “When Lio’s standing right there looking like he hasn’t eaten in weeks, and won’t even look at me, won’t <i>say</i> anything that’s not exactly what Kray wants to hear…” Galo’s breath hitches, his chest heaving with the effort of holding back a sob. “I should never have given up on him, Aina. I should never have stopped trying to save him.”</p><p>“You didn’t know. You thought he died,” Aina says. “We all did. Even Heris did.”</p><p>“I still should have done something,” Galo says softly, and it’s the first time he hasn’t pretended to accept her reassurances, that what happened to Lio isn’t his fault. “<i>Anything.</i>”</p><p>Silently she takes his hand, and he squeezes hard, trembling a little. “Did Kray say anything?” she asks him, after a little while. “Useful, I mean. He can’t have brought you there just to gloat.”</p><p>“He threatened me, mostly,” Galo says dully. “Threatened to hurt Lio… hurt him more… if I tried anything else. Offered leniency if I inform on everyone else. Meis and Gueira… he must have found my communicator. Didn’t say what he did to them after he found it. Maybe they really are dead.”</p><p>Aina is almost starting to miss the blind, indiscriminate fury. “Then we need to find out,” she says. “We established contact with the Burnish once, we can do it again. This isn’t over. Not yet.”</p><p>Galo takes a deep, shaky breath. “Yeah. Yeah. I know. I’m not backing down until either he’s dead or I am.”</p><p>There’s a note in his voice that makes Aina shudder inwardly, but she pushes it aside. “Listen,” she says, lowering her voice out of habit, though they’re all pretty sure there’s nothing monitoring their conversations <i>inside</i> the hab or Lucia would have been arrested at least five times by now. “There’s another meeting tonight. Luis’s place. Heris and Lucia… they’ve figured something out. Something big. I don’t know the details, but it… might be time to act. Soon.”</p><p>His jaw tightens, and he nods. “We have to. We’re running out of time.”</p><p>“I know. We’ll figure this out.”</p><p>“I’m starting to forget what he looked like, Aina,” Galo whispers, looking down at the floor. “Back on Earth, before all of this. When he still had that fire in his eyes. I close my eyes and all I can see is - is the way he looked at me, after…”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Aina whispers, squeezing his hand as tightly as she can. She’s not really sure whether she’s trying to comfort him or herself with the gesture. Lio isn’t the only one who no longer has that fire in his eyes.</p><p>“I just- I just wish we’d had more time. I wanted to know him better. The <i>real</i> him.” Galo closes his eyes. “I was gonna ask him out when it was all over, you know? Not even sure when I made up my mind about that. I just knew. It was stupid, honestly, we were piloting a giant robot together and I kept wondering about what toppings he’d like when we went and got victory pizza.”</p><p>Aina leans in against Galo, resting her head on his shoulder. “It’s not stupid.”</p><p>“I miss him. I’ve missed him every damn day on this stupid planet. And I - I miss Kray, even. The one I thought I knew.”</p><p>“I get it,” Aina murmurs. “I miss my sister too.” Galo is at least kind enough not to point out that, loath as she is to admit it, her sister <i>does</i> appear to still have some redeeming qualities, unlike the governor. But it hurts to think about her, still, and Aina forces herself to focus on her friend instead. “But it’s not too late. Lio’s still alive. <i>You’re</i> still alive. And you’ve got me every step of the way. You’re going to save him, and we’re going to end this. Together.”</p><p>“…Yeah.” Galo takes a deep, shaky breath, and Aina rubs his back again. He doesn’t sound entirely convinced, but at least he doesn’t sound like he’s going to lie down and give up, either. It’d be insane to expect him to be all right, she reasons, after what he’s just been through. If Galo hadn’t already staked his claim, she’d be ready to murder the governor herself after what Galo’s just told her.</p><p>When she was little, she’d once come home covered in scrapes and bruises after she’d gotten into a fight with an older kid twice her size. He’d been picking on Heris, and she hadn’t thought twice about it. She’d been grounded for weeks after that. But she hasn’t changed, not really. Galo’s the closest thing to family she has left, and Aina would do almost anything to protect her family.</p><p>She and Heris always did have that in common.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is going up sooner than I expected, but I decided this part would be best as a standalone rather than part of the multichapter finale. Next story <i>should</i> be the final one (at least as far as the main plot is concerned), though I'm not gonna upload all the chapters at once, so get ready!</p><p>As always I'm on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/BurningLio">Twitter</a> if you wanna come say hi, and feel free to DM me if you want an invite to the Kraylio discord server!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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